Thursday, July 17, 2008

RCWA - July 2008 General Meeting

Meeting Photos

The second meeting of the RCWA was again held at Splinters Woodshop in Rapid City ( http://www.splinterswoodshop.com/). It included a short business meeting prior to the toymaking demonstration. One of the goals of the RCWA is to start a Toy Program as a year-around program for building toys for under- privileged children, so the demo served as a kickoff to the planning part of this effort.

Toymaking Demonstration

The toymaking demonstration included a discussion and demonstration on General Toymaking Guidelines by Bob Buchanan. He shared tips and techniques that can be applied not only to toy making but to general woodworking as well. The demonstration included the steps required to produce two cars from the Les Rogers car series (http://www.ocwoodworkers.com/), as well as the Old Timer series of patterns by the Joys and Toys Company. His visual aids consisted of jigs needed for a small production line effort. He also showed samples of completed toys produced by the Orange County Woodworkers Association for distribution to needy children at Christmas and through out the year.

Dan Henricks took a turn on the bandsaw, cutting out the VW BUG from the Old Timers patterns. Ed Tait knocked off the rough edges on one of the cars from Les Rogers patterns using the oscillating sander.

Members took turns at the various steps in the toymaking process. This was the most popular "sanding by hand" step.

At the conclusion of the demonstration, several members felt they were ready to go out on their own and make a few cars and other toys.-----------------------------------------

Fixtures/jigs used during the demo:

Rotary wheel/lazy susan for spraying with lacquer

Drill press top and bottom plate for inserting axles/wheels; wheel shims /Jig for inserting second set of wheels